Jainism Some Essays

Author(s): A S Gopani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 27

Jainism
soul as occupying the same size as the body, the soul's movement after death as well as rebirth will become real and not formal. No movement is possible in the case of an omnipresent thing. As the all pervading soul is a changeless entity, no modificatory changes are possible in it. Therefore, any habitat which the soul comes to be associated with is its rebirth, though as a matter of fact, it is the rebirth of the body only and not of the soul because the soul is changeless. From this conviction, the theory of the soul having the same size as that of the body and of its being enveloped with the Karmas, follows. This makes it possible for the soul to move anywhere else and to be theoretically reborn.
Dharmāstikāya, Adharmāstikāya and Akāśa
The Jajna theories of the soul's movement and of rebirth as discussed before have given rise to two independent catagories, namely, Dharmastikāya and Adharmastikāya. These two theories are not to be found in any other Indian systems of thought, Jaina philosophy becomes differentiated from the other systems on account of these two substances if not for anything else. If the soul has motion as stated before it must have some other substance to help it to move and this very substance is the Dharmastikāya, the principle of motion. The soul will keep on going for ever and ever if there is no other substance to stop it from moving and the substance which does this is Adharmās tikāya. The formar ensures motion and the later, stability.
Soul is charged with the power to move. In the emancipated condition, there is no Karma responsible to give direction to motion. Now where should the emancipated soul go ? Naturally, a soul emancipated from the bondage rises above as is experienced. When the soul is freed from the Karmic bondage, it naturally rises above just as it happens exactly in the case of a gourd smeared with dust rising above from water when the dust goes away or of a castor seed shooting above when the sheaf in which it lies enclosed breaks
ourse, the substance, Dharmāśtikāya, is there all the time to help soul move. It has nothing in the way to obstruct it. Thus it will go on moving for ever and will never rest. In order to remove this anomaly, the ether (Akasa) which is a postulate in all the religious systems, is divided into two broad categories in Jainism, namely, the ether that pervades in this world of ours (Lokākasa) and the ether that exists beyond this world of ours (Alokākāsa) and in addition to this it was also hypothesized that the substances such as Dharmastikāva etc. existed in Lokākāsa only. This datum met well the contingency that the liberated souls would have otherwise remained moving and would not have been stable or fixed. This presumption, in the Jaina system, is peculiar to it only and is a logical corollary of the other Jaina theories relating to the motion, stability and ether pervading in the world. Or it must be said that